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| Preface to the Translations of Origen's Books Περὶ ᾽Αρχῶν.
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Preface to the Translations of Origen’s Books Περὶ
᾽Αρχῶν
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Addressed to Macarius, at
Pinetum, a.d. 397.
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The Translation of the two first
Books of the Περὶ
᾽Αρχῶν was
issued soon after, or contemporaneously with the Apology of Pamphilus.
The Preface to them was intended to remove prejudices by showing that
Jerome (who though not named is clearly described) had been
Rufinus’ precursor in translating Origen. The compliments paid to
Jerome were no doubt sincere: but the use made of his previous action
can hardly be justified. Rufinus knew well that Jerome’s view of
Origen had to some extent altered, that a disagreeable controversy had
sprung up at Jerusalem about him, in which he and Jerome had taken
opposite sides: and that the animosity aroused by this had with the
greatest difficulty been allayed, and a reconciliation effected at the
moment when he had quitted Palestine. This Preface with the Translation
of the Περὶ
᾽Αρχῶν was the
most immediate cause of the violent controversy and the final
estrangement between Rufinus and Jerome.
I am aware that a great many of
our brethren were incited by their longing for Scriptural knowledge to
demand from various men who were versed in Greek literature that they
would give the works of Origen to men who used the Latin tongue, and
thus make him a Roman. Among these was that brother and associate of
mine to whom this request was made by bishop Damasus, and who when he
translated the two homilies on the Song of Songs from Greek into Latin
prefixed to the work a preface2804
| 2804 Translated among Jerome’s works in this Series. | so full of
beauty and so magnificent that he awoke in every one the desire of
reading Origen and eagerly investigating his works. He said that to the
soul of that great man the words might well be applied:2805
“The King has brought me into his
chamber”: and he declared that Origen in his other books had
surpassed all other men, but in this had surpassed himself. What he
promises in this Preface is, indeed, that he will give to Roman ears
not only these books but many others of Origen. But I find that he is
so enamoured of his own style that he pursues a still more ambitious
object, namely, that he should be the creator of the book, not merely
its translator. I am then following out a task begun by him and
commended by his example; but it is out of my power to set forth the
words of this great man with a force and an eloquence like his: and I
have therefore to fear that it may happen through my fault that the man
whom he justly commends as a teacher of the church both in knowledge
and in wisdom second only to the Apostles may be thought to have a far
lower rank through my poverty of language. When I reflected on
this I was inclined to keep silence, and not to assent to the brethren
who were constantly adjuring me to make the translation. But your
influence is such, my most faithful brother Macarius, that even the
consciousness of my unfitness is not sufficient to make me resist. I
have therefore yielded to your importunity though it was against my
resolution, so that I might no longer be exposed to the demands of a
severe taskmaster; but I have done so on this condition and on this
understanding, that in making the translation I should follow as far as
possible the method of my predecessors, and especially of him of whom I
have already made mention. He, after translating into Latin above
seventy of the books of Origen which he called Homiletics, and also a
certain number of the “Tomes,” proceeded to purge and pare
away in his translation all the causes of stumbling which are to be
found in the Greek works; and this he did in such a way that the Latin
reader will find nothing in them which jars with our faith. In his
steps, therefore, I follow, not, indeed, with the power of eloquence
which is his, but, as far as may be, in his rules and method, that is,
taking care not to promulgate those things which are found in the books
of Origen to be discrepant and contradictory to one another. The cause
of these variations I have set forth very fully for your information in
the Apology which Pamphilus wrote for the books of Origen, to which I
have appended a very short treatise2806
| 2806 See the Translation in this Volume. | showing by
proofs which seem to me quite clear that his books have been in very
many cases falsified by heretical and ill-disposed persons. This is
especially the case with the books which you now require me to
translate, namely, the Περὶ
᾽Αρχῶν, which
may be rendered either Concerning First Principles or Concerning
Principalities. These books are in truth, apart from these questions,
exceedingly obscure and difficult; for in them he discusses matters
over which the philosophers have spent their whole lives without any
result. But our Christian thinker has done all that lay in his power to
turn to purposes of sound religion the belief in a creator and the
order of the created world which they had made subservient to their
false religion. Wherever therefore I have found in his books anything
contrary to the truth concerning the Trinity which he has in other
places spoken of in a strictly orthodox sense, I have either omitted it
as a foreign and not genuine expression or set it down in terms
agreeing with the rule of faith which we find him constantly assenting
to. There are things, no doubt, which he has developed in somewhat
obscure language, wishing to pass rapidly over them, and as addressing
those who have experience and knowledge of such matters; in these cases
I have made the passage plain by adding words which I had read in other
books of his where the matter was more fully treated. I have done this
in the interest of clearness: but I have put in nothing of my own; I
have only given him back his own words, though taken from other
passages. I have explained this in the Preface, so that those who
calumniate us should not think that they had found in this fresh
material for their charges. But let them take heed what they are about
in their perversity and contentiousness. As for me, I have not
undertaken this laborious task (in which I trust that God will be my
helper in answer to your prayers) for the sake of shutting the mouths
of calumnious men, but with the view of supplying material for the
increase of real knowledge to those who desired it. This only I require
of every man who undertakes to copy out these books or to read them, in
the sight of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and adjure
him by our faith in the coming kingdom, by the assurance of the
resurrection of the dead, by the eternal fire which is prepared for the
devil and his angels (even as he trusts that he shall not possess as
his eternal inheritance that place where there is weeping and gnashing
of teeth, and where their fire will not be quenched and their worm will
not die) that he should neither add nor take away, that he should
neither insert nor change, anything in that which is written but that
he should compare his copy with that from which it is copied and
correct it critically letter for letter, and that he should not keep by
him a copy which has not received correction or criticism, lest, if his
copy is not thus distinct, the difficulty of the meaning may beget a
still greater obscurity in the mind of the readers.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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